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A few months ago I wrote a post on why we don't need offices which sparked some interesting discussion both in the comments section, in emails I received, and on social media. Ultimately, the questions and discussions stemmed from trying to figure out what steps organizations should take to implement or move towards a flexible work environment. From what I've observed, it appears that the value of flexible work is starting to become more clear. However what many still lack is an approach on what to do next. So, that's what I want to talk about today; the five steps to making flexible work a reality at your organization

Step 1: Understand flexible work

Flexible work typically consists of three things; allowing employees to work anytime, anywhere, and focusing on outputs instead of inputs. Now most organizations are typically comfortable with adjusting to one or two of the above things but it's rare to find an organization that embraces all three. One of the most crucial things for understanding flexible work is simply researching and exploring what other companies are doing and how they are doing it. All you need to do is Google "flexible work examples" or "flexible work case studies" and you will find plenty of them. I encourage you to email them to set up some time to speak with whoever helped role out their flexible work programs. You will learn an amazing amount of information this way. You don't need to make this a year long research project; just a few weeks of phone calls and research is more than enough. In a report that my company Chess Media Group published (sponsored by Citrix) we found that employees perceived they would be more productive, have greater work life balance, and job satisfaction (among other things).

Step 2: Identify potential areas at your company

Now that you have a good understanding of what flexible work is and what other companies have been doing around it the next step is to try to find areas within your organization that might make for good potential candidates of the new program. Most larger companies typically do this in a phased approach instead of implementing flexible work across the whole company; smaller companies have the luxury of being able to made wide sweeping changes. Typical candidates for flexible work usually start in marketing, sales, and PR departments but some organizations have entirely remote and flexible development teams which as well. The easiest way to figure out where to start is by asking, "which teams or departments can do their jobs without coming into the office?"

Step 3: Try out a program

So, you understand flexible work, you have identified some potential areas at your company to experiment with, and now you're ready to test some things out, great! Create a set of basic guidelines or principles to give to your new flexible work team. For example, is there a set period every day where they should be online (maybe from 12-2)? Will you conduct regular virtual meetings? Do the employees have the technology in place to enable flexible work (both hardware and software)? How will your team stay in touch, aligned, and up to date on things? Oftentimes, what most organizations find is that these things aren't that complicated to think about and answer. It's important to set out the expectations early on so that everyone is on the same page. Keep in mind that flexible work does mean more freedom but is also means more accountability.